from winding down the wars in iraq and be afghanistan. that would raise the debt ceiling enough to get us through 2012, though boehner's would only take us through the end of the year. last night the president and speaker both aimed to put publish pressure on the other. >> there's no symptom of big government more menacing than our debt. break its grip, and we begin to liberate our economy and our future. >> i'm asking you all to make your voice heard. if you want a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, let your member of congress know. >> reporter: enough people did, presumably supporters as well as opponents, that the speaker's web site crashed along with those of a couple of other republicans and at least one democrat. republicans say the president wants a long-term debt ceiling hike to keep it out of his re-election bid. democrats say the bond rating agencies want a long-term hike. a short-term one, they say, would risk a downgrade of this country's credit rating, and that would hike credit interest rates on everyone. jon: the overwhelming number of calls coming into senat

is about taking care of the wars in the iraq and afghanistan, it's about taking care of those bush tax cuts, it's about taking care of the medicare prescription drug bill. all those costs. and to say we're going to forget about those and worry about the future when our kids are the ones that will suffer is irresponsible. so i don't think the president would want to act unilaterally, nor do i think congress has to force the president into acting unilaterally. we can get this done. this is a manufactured crisis because for seven different occasions under president bush, under 17 or 18 different occasions under president reagan republicans voted to lift the debt ceiling because they knew we would default on our debts for the first time in history. jenna: so let's say we're moving towards this deadline, and we actually are -- >> we are. jenna: august 2nd, right? you've seen so many different numbers and you mentioned so many different issues, and i don't mean to gloss over that in generalities, but there's so much involved in this decision about the debt ceiling and also about cutting